Astro Bot Might Be Taking the Throne that Little Big Planet Left Empty

PlayStation’s Astro Bot continues the legacy set by Astro Bot Rescue Mission and Astro ‘s Playroom which, while surprisingly well-received by audiences, were more like tech demos and love letters to PlayStation history than full-fledged games. But now that Astro Bot is shaping up to be a proper franchise, things are starting to seem oddly similar to another PlayStation-exclusive series.

LittleBigPlanet is a trilogy of games developed by Media Molecule, a studio that is now perhaps best known for Dreams, the open-source PlayStation video games engine. The LittleBigPlanet franchise was, without a doubt, Sony’s leading platformer during the PS3 era, carving out a space for the console within a genre that is typically dominated by Nintendo, whose instantly recognizable brands like Mario and Donkey Kong help secure consistent success. Sackboy: A Big Adventure, a spin-off title launched alongside the PS5, took the IP in a slightly different direction, though one that is still clearly inspired by classic platformers like Super Mario 3D World. The LBP train has seemingly stopped chugging along for now, though, and with Astro Bot rising to prominence, it could usurp the other as Sony’s premier platformer.

Astro Bot and LittleBigPlanet Are Cut from the Same Cloth

Family-Friendly Platformers Are Rare On PlayStation

There are definitely kid-friendly games on PlayStation, and Sony exclusives of old, like Crash Bandicoot, spring to mind when discussing this subject, but it’s rare for more than one AAA, exclusive platforming game to exist on the console at once. There are a number of reasons for this, but the most obvious is that Sony probably isn’t interested in investing too heavily in the genre space while other games, like live-services and open-world action titles, tend to be more profitable.

Another reason for this could be brand unification. Historically, PlayStation mascots have come from the world of platforming, with notable examples including:

• Crash Bandicoot
• Spyro
• Sack Boy

There are other PlayStation mascots, like Nathan Drake and Kratos, but those from family-friendly games are probably a bit more desirable from a marketing perspective, as they are inoffensive, simple, and malleable; Astro Bot and Sackboy aren’t tethered with the same baggage as a character like Joel from the Last of Us, of course. This makes them effective brand ambassadors, able to appeal to all ages and capable of appearing in any number of different games. It may seem cynical, but Sony is a business, and having a mascot that “checks all the boxes,” so to speak, has a number of benefits. Sack Boy and Astro Bot certainly check a lot of boxes.

It’s also worth noting that
LittleBigPlanet
offers a lot of PlayStation fan service via cosmetics and the like, which seems to be exactly what
Astro Bot
is doing, though to a greater extent.

Why Astro Bot Could Be Replacing LittleBigPlanet

With LittleBigPlanet being Sony’s resident family-friendly platforming series for so long, it will be interesting to see if it can coexist alongside Astro Bot. Media Molecule is working on a new, unrevealed project, but after passing the reins to Sumo Digital for the Sackboy spin-off game and leaving LittleBigPlanet in the background for so long, it seems like the developer might be moving on. And while Sackboy: A Big Adventure has its fans, no sequel has been announced since its release four years ago, meaning that it could be curtains for the LittleBigPlanet universe, at least for now.

Sony could always have multiple exclusive platforming franchises running concurrently—Nintendo has been doing it for years, after all—but this may be unlikely. Nintendo’s brand image is designed around these sorts of games, while Sony tends to cater to an older audience with franchises like God of War and The Last of Us. Plus, expensive, exclusive games are proving to be more and more financially risky as time goes on, meaning that diversification across genres will likely be important for the company’s business strategy. If there’s only one spot for a 3D platforming franchise on PlayStation, Astro Bot might be the one to occupy it.